Like Toy Soldiers
by ShylohJaye
Summary: Rated for some curse words. Ben/Julie Gwevin. Ben calls Kevin in the middle night after he rushes Julie to the hospital--Kevin goes to comfort a friend.


It shouldn't have been like this.

He shouldn't have been going eighty down the interstate towards the hospital in a desperate attempt to get there in time so Ben didn't go through this alone. They should have caught a break at some point. They'd saved the universe. What more could you ask for after that? Even though he personally didn't believe in the ways that Gwen's mother had hoped for when he had finally let her meet him--Kevin prayed anyway. He prayed that just for once, Ben Tennyson caught a break.

Ben had called at nearly one in the morning, just after Kevin had finally fallen asleep, his voice raw and desperate after they had kicked him out of the labor and delivery room after she had first started showing signs of distress. It had seemingly been a normal pregnancy, but Kevin had known better. Nothing was ever seemingly normal. Nothing ever went the way it was supposed to-- not for him and doubly so not for Ben.

He could still see the little Japanese girl standing in his doorway, looking so pitifully heartbroken and asking if he'd seen Gwen. He wished that Julie had never confided in Gwen and that he had never overheard it. However selfish that made him, he didn't care. He wished she'd never explained it so that it made so much damn sense that Ben couldn't know. He wished that she hadn't said that Ben was going through enough at work. Julie had the gall to put making the Plumber's better than they'd ever been before over their child. She'd reminded him in that little girl voice of hers that Ben was setting the stage for Intergalactic peace that would last for generations. Gwen had supported Julie's decision not to tell him that this baby thing might not work out the way they hoped for. Unable to tell Ben himself, Kevin sat back and shut up.

They'd asked him to lie to his best friend for the last four months. As a result, he wished he wasn't going to the hospital to collect the remnant's of Ben, even though he knew that he most likely was.

His nerves must have been worse than he thought as he examined the double parked Camaro. He took a deep breath, put out his cigarette, and walked towards the hospital building to collect his friend. He deeply regretted not thinking to stop by Gwen's and taking her with him. Gwen would know what to say to make this all just a little less horrible. Gwen was just fucking magical like that. Gwen was something that Kevin could never be. A comforting presence.

He found Ben-or rather a nervous wreck that barely resembled Ben-- collapsed into a plastic chair with cheap upholstery down the hall from the room he assumed the doctor's had kicked him out of. He took in his best friend's appearance, inwardly promising not to hold it against him, knowing he couldn't do any better in his position. The Omnitrix stood out against his honey colored skin, catching Kevin's attention in a way it hadn't done in years. It was as silent and as still as it's wielder--blinking at random intervals, indicating that it was still rebooting from whatever Ben had done at work. As he looked at his friend, he couldn't help but wonder how long he had been sitting here before he'd given in and called. He looked frozen into this place somehow.

He felt regret and empathy for him as he noticed Ben's deep green eyes were red from the tears. His hair and clothes were both a crumpled mess, a sign that he had gotten dressed from the floor when Julie had gone into labor.

The fear in his eyes spoke volumes of what must have happened earlier tonight. He wasn't prepared for the sight of Ben smeared in blood. When Ben had said over the phone that Julie had woken him up bleeding, he had figured that it had only been a little bit. From the sight of the youngest Tennyson, it had been an incredible amount.

He looked up at Kevin, thanked him for coming, and then proceeded to lose the rest of his composure. "Kev-vin..w-what--am--I--gon-na do?" He sobbed, burying his face in his hands.

Kevin rubbed his back in an effort to encourage the distraught Tennyson to breathe. "What did they say, Ben?" He asked softly, knowing that this called for tenderness. He knew that Ben had to know something. If they had managed to separate him from Julie, then they must have told him exactly why it was necessary. That was the only reason Kevin could ever see himself leaving Gwen after he'd rushed her to the hospital in old clothes that were stained with her blood.

"She's in the OR now, they won't tell me anything." He managed to say between horrible excuses for gasps of air.

"Did they say what was wrong?" He asked carefully, making sure there wasn't anything in that sentence that would further upset Ben if it were possible.

"Something about her bein' abrupt." He looked up at Kevin hopefully, even though there was a sinking feeling in his gut. Kevin could tell he was going to hate that look. Things weren't looking good. "That's not so bad, right?"

"I don't know, Ben." He said through a sigh. "I did good to finish high school."

He heard Ben's breath hitch in his throat. "She'd been trying to wake me up..." Ben said, staring straight ahead, past Kevin. "I'd gotten home just after eleven..I haven't slept since I've been gone... I was just so tired...I don't know how long she'd been trying to wake me up..."

Kevin found a chair in close proximity and pulled it up next to Ben. "This isn't your fault, Ben." He said quietly, pulling his friend in close against his shoulder. He'd seen Gwen do it on several occasions and it always seemed to calm him.

"I want this baby, Kevin." He said, his voice cracking. "I want Julie.." Kevin just nodded silently, squeezing his shoulder in a comforting way.

"I know." He reassured. "I know, Ben."

They must have sat there for nearly an hour before Kevin stood up, going to search for a nurse or something. "Stay here, Ben." He mumbled to the exhausted Tennyson. "I'll be right back." He reassured.

Not knowing what was going on was killing him. Julie had known that something like this was going to happen, and she hadn't told Ben a damn thing about it. She'd taken the risk of going ahead with the pregnancy. She left Ben sitting alone, hopelessly waiting for her status in the OR. It took a special kind of bitch to do something like that, but the only difference was that Julie did it in what she really thought was Ben's best interest. She'd done it because she loved him and didn't want him to give up his calling to worry about her. She really loved Ben. Even an idiot such as himself could see that.

That was more than his mother would ever have done for anybody. It was more than she did for her own son. Kevin had to give it to Julie, going through an uncertain pregnancy was scary enough. He knew that if she made it through this, she'd be a great mother. A real mother. The kind of mother that if every kid got, the world would be a better place.

"Excuse me." He asked softly to the first person he saw in scrubs. "Julie Yamamoto, she was taken into the OR about an hour and a half ago....


End file.
